Turkey Cream Puff Pie

This is one that's been in the (virtual) recipe box for a while, just waiting for the first cooler day of the fall. It does not involve dessert cream puffs in any way; I think it acquired that name because the crust is a choux pastry, like what you use to make cream puffs... but it should probably be "turkey cheese puff pie" or "turkey gougere pie".



Making choux pastry is one of those times when you feel like something magic is happening in front of you. Every time I make a batch, I can't believe what happens. You dump the flour into your butter/liquid mixture and think, "Oh, this will never smooth out, I'm going to have a lumpy mess." Lo and behold, it smoothes out and all the lumps disappear. You add your eggs one at a time, and it looks like there's no way the dough will absorb each additional egg... and then you look and the egg you just added is gone. And all of this comes before you even bake it, which causes your sticky, buttery paste to rise and puff and turn a gorgeous golden brown.



I've made choux pastry a bunch of times, mostly for gougeres. The idea of using it as a savory pie crust, however, came from Gourmet magazine (recipe available on Epicurious). I subbed in my usual veggie combo of carrots, corn, peas, and broccoli, and also added a couple of tablespoons of sherry to my filling.

The smell of this baking is out of this world, by the way--my whole apartment is filled with the aroma of butter and cheese. The finished pie is pretty darn delicious. There's absolutely no confusing the choux pastry with a typical pie crust. It's dense and eggy and moist, with pockets of Swiss cheese throughout.

Something healthy next time, I promise.

Meat Loaf Club Sandwich

Ordinarily, sandwiches don't make it to the blog, because my sandwiches tend to be kind of boring. "Take something, put it in bread". This one, however, seemed interesting. It's a meatloaf sandwich that doesn't require one to make a meatloaf first. Ok, I had to have a go at that.

This comes from Food & Wine (found here on their website). You make a seasoned meat mixture, spread it out on a sandwich, and press it on either a grill or skillet. Instant meatloaf in a sandwich.

Mine had no tomatoes and no rosemary, and I put mustard directly on the top layer instead of having it on the side. Two thumbs up. They're garlicky, bacon-y, with moist meat, crunchy toasted bread, and a little kick from the chipotle. It's a little more work than a typical deli meat sandwich, but well worth it.



Note to self: next time, make fries. This needed fries. :D

Sour Cream Fudge Cake

As we know by now, I like to bake. Mostly, I lean towards savory things like breads and rolls, and especially yeasted recipes that let me knead dough for 15 minutes. However, for my birthday buddy cake today at work, I really couldn't show up with a birthday loaf of rye bread.

My buddy had requested chocolate, and as I paged through Tish Boyle's The Cake Book, I saw many MANY chocolate cakes. The one that I settled on won out for the simple reason that it can feed a crowd: Sour Cream Fudge Cake (p. 140) with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (p. 311).



It took a little bit of time, but not an unreasonable amount. Both the cake and the frosting required double boilers, and the cake had lots of "add ingredient x in three batches, mixing thoroughly after each addition". I made the cake Sunday night, and got up early Monday morning to make the frosting. I figured, with a cream cheese frosting, fresher is better. I have no cake decorating tools or skills, but I think the pattern came out nicely. Looks like waves, or dragon scales, depending on how you look at it.

It went over very well, despite being just a hair on the dry side. Something in the fridge at work smelled funky and I didn't want the frosting to absorb any weird flavors, so I only had the cake in there for about 3 hours and then pulled it out. The three hours at room temp before we cut into it... it lost a bit of moisture, but not too much. The cake was dense and chocolaty, but not overly rich or sweet. I could eat the frosting by the spoonful. I know white chocolate can sometimes be almost cloying, but the tang from the lemon juice and the cream cheese cuts right through that. The white chocolate ends up being more of a background note.

I've already been told that they're signing me up for dessert duty for our holiday party, and that I'm not getting a vote. :D

Three days later...

Sauerbraten! I was pleased to see that none of the friends who had threatened to break into my place and steal this while I was at work today followed through.



The meat went in the oven at 7 am. I took it out at 10:45, then strained the braising liquid and made my gravy. I cut back the number of gingersnaps used to 12, because AB's gravy on the Good Eats episode looked almost too thick.



The meat was falling apart and very moist; gotta love a 3.5 hour braise. I had some buttered noodles on the side (organic pasta, even), and had a lovely lunch before I had to go off to work.

The one note I had was that the gravy, although very good, felt like it was lacking something. I was expecting much more of a hit from the vinegar, considering the sheer amount of vinegar in the dish. Something to make that acidity really pop, whether that's a bit more salt or a bit of lemon juice... whatever it needs, it doesn't need much. This is a darn tasty dish.

Sauerbraten, day one

I know, I know, I should be flogged for the lack of posts. I'm going to try to make up for it by taking three days to make sauerbraten.

I didn't even know I really needed to make sauerbraten. However, as I was sitting here Thursday night watching Good Eats, I realized that Alton Brown's sauerbraten was an absolutely essential project for the weekend.

Friday after work, I went in search of the one ingredient I anticipated having problems finding: juniper berries. My first instinct was to check at the natural market, and I was happy to see the berries hiding out in the bulk spice area, along with the mustard seeds and whole cloves that I needed.


I figured I'd see how much of the rest of the ingredient list I could cross off while there. Most of their products there are organic, but not too pricey. I managed to find everything I needed except the beef and gingersnaps, so there was a quick stop off at Giant to get those. I found a nice Angus 2.5 lb bottom round roast, which is a good size for a roast when it's just me. I'll have plenty of leftovers.

This morning, I gathered everything up and made the marinade:


After browning the beef, I poured the marinade over it and put it in the refrigerator. There it'll stay until Tuesday, when I stick it in a pot, put it in the oven, and forget all about it for 4 hours. Gotta love recipes like this: 20 minutes of work and let time do the rest. :D

Stay tuned...